


Karen and Frank Sharpe

by szm



Series: Frank Sharpe and the Devil [2]
Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Dark Character, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-02
Updated: 2017-04-02
Packaged: 2018-10-14 04:04:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10528587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/szm/pseuds/szm
Summary: Foggy is Frank Sharpe, a 'bad' man, but at least he doesn't judge. And Karen needs a drink.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is a follow on to 'Frank Sharpe', it's set in an alternative universe where 'Foggy' was raised by his mother Rosalind Sharpe, not the Nelsons. (To be honest I don't know where this is going I'm just a bit fond of this version of Foggy.)

Karen felt sick, sick and hot. Like she was poisoned. She was wandering the streets, she wrapped her coat around herself tighter. She wondered if she looked different now.

_“Do you really think I would give you a loaded gun,”_

_“Do you really think this is the first time I’ve shot someone.”_

She wiped the fingerprints away, threw the gun in the river. She wondered when he… when the body… would be found. Who would find it? Who would tell Fisk, what Fisk would do. If he would know it was her? 

She realised she was not heading the right way for her apartment, she turned and was momentarily disorientated. 

“Ms Page?” came a pleasant voice behind her.

She turned to see Frank Sharpe. She ducked her head and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, Matt was always talking about Sharpe, how dangerous he was. She wondered if she could run.

“Are you okay?” asked Sharpe. “You look a bit shaky.”

“I’m fine,” said Karen trying to keep her voice level. “I just got turned around. I’m going now.”

“You look like you’re going to pass out,” said Sharpe. “This isn’t the best neighbourhood, let me walk you home?”

“I’d be safer with you?” asked Karen with a raised eyebrow.

“You don’t have anything I want,” said Sharpe with a shrug. 

“Do you think your safe with me?” asked Karen feeling reckless and sick.

“I like to live dangerously,” grinned Sharpe. “When the reward is worth it. To spend time with you Ms Page, would be worth it.”

Karen laughed, cutting herself off abruptly because otherwise she was scared she wouldn’t be able to stop. 

Sharpe tilted his head to one side. “You look like you could use a drink, lucky for you the greatest bar in the city is just round the corner.” He offered her his arm. “Accompany me?” Karen eyed up his arm like it was a snake about to strike. Sharpe sighed. “You look like you’ve had a bad day, I know that look. Really, what could I do to make it worse?”

Karen giggled a little hysterically, she couldn’t really argue with that. She took Sharpe’s arm, he babbled pleasantly about nothing as they walked to short distance to a rundown bar with a flickering neon sign in the grimy window. Josie’s. 

It was not what she’d expected from Sharpe’s favourite bar. It was dark and she felt her feet stick to the floor as she walked. There were two heavily muscled, tattooed men playing pool. They nodded as Karen and Sharpe walked past. Karen flinched but Sharpe waved happily.

“Joe, Derek, you boys keeping well?” asked Sharpe brightly.

“Better than the other guy,” grinned one of the men. Sharpe laughed, and steered Karen towards the bar. “Relax Ms Page, this is the safest place in the world.”

“Somehow I doubt that,” said Karen looking round nervously. “But then again nothing feels safe anymore.”

Sharpe gave her a look that was too understanding and she wanted to hide. “This place is honest,” explained Sharpe. “The people here are just trying to live. See that guy by the jukebox. He’s called Steve. Says his mom named him after Captain America. He just wants to get enough money to keep his kid at a good school. She’s clever that one, he wants her to have a better life. Joe and Derek grew up around here. Been friends forever, in and out of prison. But they never knowingly break their word. Fergus propping up the bar over there, drinking club soda. He’s getting married next week, promised his wife to be that he’d give up the booze, been off it for six months.”

“How do you know all these people?” asked Karen.

Sharpe shrugged. “Knowing things is my business, and people are mostly pretty simple. I might not have grown up around here but this is my city. Some of us just have it in our blood I guess. I think your right where you belong Ms Page. If you let it, it’ll look after you,” Sharpe smiled at her as he spoke. It was simultaneously comforting and creepy. The bartender drifted down to their end of the bar and Sharpe’s unsettling focus switched to her. “Josie! Light of my life! We will have a bottle of your best liquor, I know better than to ask what it is.” He staged whispered the last part to Karen.

“Sharpe,” she acknowledged gruffly. “You still don’t drink for free.”

Sharpe laughed and reached over the bar to snag two glasses. “Josie you crack me up.”

Josie huffed but it seemed more fond than upset. She passed Sharpe a bottle from the top shelf. “You shouldn’t bring dates here.”

Sharpe held his hand to his chest in mock pain. “Josie, you know you’re the only woman for me.” Josie rolled her eyes and drifted away back down the bar. “I love this place,” said Sharpe happily. “My Mother hates it. She tried to get it shut down, one of her clients wanted to buy the whole building.”

“What did you do?” asked Karen knocking back a shot of the clear sticky liquid Sharpe poured into the glass for her.

“Some blackmail, some bribery, a lot of threatening,” said Sharpe with a shrug. “All the good stuff.” He knocked back his own drink and pouring two more.

“Just to spite your Mother?” asked Karen, trying not to think about what Sharpe was casually admitting too. 

“I made a profit,” said Sharpe easily. “But, yeah, mostly the Mom thing. We all have our damage, Ms Page.”

“I’ll drink to that,” agreed Karen. “Matt says you’re a criminal...?”

Sharpe laughed. “I am.”

“So why are you drinking with me?” asked Karen.

“I’m a bad guy,” said Sharpe shaking his hands in front of his face dramatically. “But I’m just a guy. I like you, you’re clever, you seem like a survivor. And I think you’ll go far. So maybe we can be friends? When my friends have had a bad day, I like to take them for a drink. At least you know I won’t judge you.”

“I shot someone today,” said Karen downing another shot. Desperately trying not to feel anything. “I killed them.”

“What did you do with the gun?” asked Sharpe.

“In the river,” said Karen dully. “And I cleared my fingerprints away, I think… I think I got them all…”

“This person deserve it?” 

“He kidnapped me, threatened me, people I care about,” replied Karen, she reached for her glass, but her hand was shaking. “He was so sure he had me, that there was nothing I could do. Like I was helpless and he was just… playing with me.”

Sharpe rested his hand over hers stopping the tremor. “Then he underestimated you, and totally deserved to be proved wrong. Fuck that guy.”

Karen half laughed and half sobbed. “I don’t want to sleep.”

“Then we stay awake till dawn!” announced Sharpe. “This is the city that never sleeps after all. We will tour all of the finest drinking establishments, then we will head to the fish market. To haggle for sturgeon.”

Karen still didn’t trust Sharpe, but she couldn’t deny feeling a little better.

**

Matt was in the office when she got into work. True to Sharpe’s word she hadn’t slept. But she had manged a change of clothes and a shower. “Sorry I’m late,” she said to Matt.

“No problem,” said Matt, he frowned just over her left shoulder. “You sm…seem… did you have a late night.”

“Went out for a few drinks with… a friend,” she replied, wondering how true that statement was. Truer than Matt would be comfortable with certainly.

“A friend?” asked Matt with a raised eyebrow.

“So, Boss,” said Karen, changing the subject. “Where do you want me to start?”

Matt let it go and they carried on with the day.

As they were closing up for the night Matt turned to her and said sincerely. “Are you okay? You can talk to me, if you need too.”

Karen smiled at him, she really was lucky to have met such a good guy. “Better than the other guy,” she replied, she knew she’d do whatever it took to keep him safe. But Matt didn’t need to know how far that went.


End file.
